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Thursday, June 30, 2016

SAO PAULO – Fabiane Niclotti, who was crowned Miss Brazil 2004, was found dead inside her apartment in Gramado, a city in Rio Grande do Sul state, but there were no signs of violence, police said Wednesday.

The 31-year-old model’s brother called police because she was not answering her telephone.

Police found Niclotti’s body on Tuesday night and there were no signs of forced entry or violence at her apartment, investigators said.

Niclotti competed in the 2004 Miss Universe pageant in Quito, but she did not win.

After the contest, she lived for several months in London, where she studied English.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Body parts from a murder victim were found Wednesday near the spot on Copacabana beach where the beach volleyball competition will take place when Brazil’s second city hosts the 2016 Olympics in August, Jornal do Brasil reported.

Authorities have not yet determined the age or sex of the victim, the daily said on its Web site, citing Rio de Janeiro state police.

A forensics team is at the site and the investigation will be conducted by the state police homicide division.

Jornal do Brasil noted that the appearance of the body coincides with an upsurge in concern about the ability of authorities to ensure the safety of athletes and spectators attending the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

The Rio de Janeiro state government recently declared a state of financial calamity and police are threatening to walk off the job if they don’t get paid, the newspaper said.

MEXICO CITY – Sexual violence is a routine practice in the detention of women by Mexican security forces, but there is hardly any penalty for those crimes, said an Amnesty International report released on Tuesday.

AI spoke with 100 women serving time in federal prisons and all said they had suffered sexual harassment and psychological abuse during their arrest or in the hours that followed.

Seventy-two of them had suffered sexual abuse and 33 were raped.

With numbers like that, “we can’t accept the theory that there are a few bad apples in Mexico’s security forces,” Madeleine Penman, author of the report, told EFE in an interview.

Hours before the study was published, the AI director for the Americas, Erika Guevara-Ross, met with Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez to present her with the results.

Security-force members who have been prosecuted, the investigator said, “are almost non-existent.” And since 1991, only 15 charges of torture have ended with convictions at the federal level.

Another conclusion of the report is that the crime-fighting strategy is often based on arbitrary arrests that target poor, marginalized women who are the most vulnerable and who end up suffering abuse and being forced to sign “confessions” for their “crimes.”

Such was the fate of Yecenia Armenta, recently released after spending four years in jail. When she was arrested in 2012 she was beaten and raped for hours until she “admitted” killing her husband.

Amnesty International does not hesitate to call the situation in Mexico a “torture epidemic.”

Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, has received some 7,000 complaints about torture since 2010.

The United Press International published on Thursday an opinion piece by José Inácio Faria, a Member of the European Parliament from Portugal, on the Iranian regime's human rights abuses and the steps the international community should take in response.

Last week, together with 270 other colleagues in the European Parliament, I signed a statement condemning the ongoing, rampant human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic of Iran. We have called on EU and Western governments "to condition any further relations with Iran to a clear progress on human rights and a halt to executions."

Iran is today the world leader in number of executions per capita. It has also been declared by the U.S. State Department as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.

The rate of hangings has increased in recent years with the arrival to power of the so-called "moderate" president, Hassan Rouhani. Nearly 1,000 people were put to death in 2015 alone, according to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, Ahmad Shaheed, who declared it as the highest number of executions in Iran in 27 years.

In the streets of Tehran and other Iranian cities, morality police and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps have intensified their efforts to root out and punish various forms of deviance from the country's repressive religious laws, including the forced veiling of women and the criminalization of labour unions and other forms of peaceful gathering. Meanwhile, the Iranian regime's unwavering support for Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has made Iran part of the problem rather than a solution to the Syrian war.

Iran's fingerprints are also deepening in Iraq, where Iranian-backed Shiite militias have recently been accused again by international rights organizations of systematic torturing and killing of the Sunni population in the battle to take over Fallujah. This will further alienate the Sunnis and drive them toward extremist groups such as the Islamic State.

And as if to illustrate the danger of being caught as a bystander in the middle of Tehran's contest for dominance of the region, Iraq is also the site of a community of exiled Iranian dissidents, who have been stranded since 2012 in the former U.S. military base of Camp Liberty. Described by the UN as a "detention center," the camp has been the target of attacks utilizing Iranian-made rockets, as well as an ongoing blockade of medical supplies and other lifesaving provisions.

When the defenseless camp residents who belong to the main Iranian opposition PMOI were forcibly relocated to Camp Liberty from Camp Ashraf under a deal overseen by the UN and United States, it was done with the promise that they would soon be relocated to stable homes, presumably in Europe and North America. Four years and dozens of deaths later, no nations other than Albania have made a significant effort to relocate those people.

At the same time, following the nuclear agreement that has provided the Islamic Republic with extensive sanctions relief, several EU countries have both sent and received political and trade delegations and have actively pursued investment in Iran without any precondition.

As it has been admitted by the U.S. president and other Western officials, and given the dominance of the IRGC over the Iranian economy, there's little doubt that most of the money, instead of being used for the well-being of Iranian people and the development of the country, is funneled directly to support terrorist groups in the region.

On July 9, together with other many other parliamentarians and political figures from around the world, I will attend a rally organized by the Iranian democratic opposition led by Maryam Rajavi. In doing so, we will strive to reassure the Iranian people that not everyone in the West has forgotten their righteous struggle for freedom and democracy.

Iran's human rights record is of global significance and it is very much the responsibility of Western nations to address that issue.

In fact, our essential values as Europeans ought to be reason enough for us to demand that Iran improve its domestic human rights as a price for any expansion in trade relations. But as foreign investment gives Iran the opportunity to reach its hand further across the region, it should be clear to us that the stakes are much higher than we might have once imagined. And if we refuse to respond to this situation, we will bear responsibility for the loss of innocent lives not only in Iran but also in Syria, Iraq and other places in the region where Iranian proxy fighters seek dominance.

José Inácio Faria, a Portuguese member of the European Parliament, is member of Friends of a Free Iran group in the European Parliament.

United Nations human rights experts on cultural rights and on freedom of expression have expressed concern at the imprisonment and imposition of heavy fines against three artists in Iran earlier this month and have called for their immediate release.

In a statement issued on Friday by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune, and Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye, said that the conviction and sentencing of artists is entirely unacceptable and is in complete violation of the Iranian regime’s obligations under international human rights law.

They have also called for all charges to be dropped.

The expert’s call has also been endorsed by the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, and the UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan E. Méndez.

Musicians Mehdi Rajabian and Yousef Emadi, and filmmaker Hossein Rajabian were sentenced to six years in prison and fined 50 million Rials (about $1,658) each for “insulting Islamic sanctities,” “propaganda against the State” and for “conducing illegal activities in the audiovisual affaires including through producing prohibited audiovisual material and performing an illegal and underground music site.” On appeal, the prison sentence was reduced to three years.

Mr. Kaye said that "detaining someone on the grounds of ‘insulting the sacred’ and ‘propaganda against the state’ is incompatible with international human rights standards.”

Ms. Bennoune expressed “dismay” at the allegations that the artists were forced to make self-incriminating televised “confessions” to the charges of producing prohibited audiovisual materials, and apologize for broadcasting the voice of female singers.

She said that the action of the Iranian regime against the artists has serious repercussions for others in the country and that it results in unjustifiable restrictions on the right of all persons in Iran to have access to and enjoy the arts. “Artistic expression is simply not a crime,” Ms. Bennoune concluded.

“The arrest, conviction and sentencing of artists is entirely unacceptable and in complete violation of international human rights law binding on Iran. The three artists should be released immediately and all charges dropped,” they concluded.

Special Rapporteurs are appointed by the Geneva-based Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a country situation or a specific human rights theme.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Following month of harassments and intimidations, on June 16, the Iranian regime’s court summoned Ms. Sara Akhlaghi, a Bahaii resident of Shiraz, southern Iran for signing a waivers to have her maison unlocked, according to a report published Tuesday by the website of the Women’s Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ).Ms. Akhlaghi advertized her maison's wedding gowns on Instagram.However, internet security agents hacked and blocked her account for 'dissemination of indecent photographs and inciting and encouraging others to breach public decency.'In the next stage, her maison was sealed without prior notice. They posted a banner on the door, which read, 'This business has been sealed because of disseminating indecent photographs and is not allowed to do business.'Then on June 16, Ms. Akhlaghi was summoned to court ostensibly to reach an agreement for unlocking her business, but she was arrested on the spot. There is no information available on her whereabouts, the report added.

Tuesday, June 21, 2016

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani police say a man whose girlfriend threw acid on him for refusing to marry her has died of his wounds at a hospital.

Local police official Bashir Ahmed said 22-year-old Sadaqat Ali died at a government hospital in the city of Multan in central Punjab province Tuesday.

Ali was brought to the hospital last week after 32-year-old Monil Mai threw acid on him when he was visiting her home in the city’s Mukhdoom Rashid neighborhood. She had been having an affair with Ali for several years.

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Mai was arrested by police hours after the attack and authorities have now registered a murder case against her

The two top officials of Local 22 of the militant CNTE teachers union were arrested over the weekend on charges that include the theft of school textbooks and “operating with ill-gotten resources”

MEXICO CITY – Striking teachers mounted protests and roadblocks on Monday in Mexico City and in the Mexican south in response to the arrests of leaders of the opposition to the sweeping education overhaul enacted by President Enrique Peña Nieto.

The two top officials of Local 22 of the militant CNTE teachers union, Ruben Nuñez and Francisco Villalobos, were arrested over the weekend on charges that include the theft of school textbooks and “operating with ill-gotten resources.”

The union says the detentions are politically motivated, as does Mexico’s most prominent leftist politician, former Mexico City mayor and two-time presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

CNTE members blocked roads Monday in the suburbs of Oaxaca, capital of the likenamed southern state.

They also gathered in front of the headquarters of the state education department and at the city’s international airport, where they seized a police vehicle.

Riot police confronted the teachers and demanded the return of the vehicle. The militants eventually complied and allowed traffic to resume.

In neighboring Chiapas state, where a strike called by the CNTE has shut down 18,000 schools, union members blocked all the roads leading into the state capital, Tuxtla Gutierrez, to demand the release of the jailed labor leaders.

Some 10,000 teachers plan to set out Wednesday from Chiapas for Mexico City to join other CNTE members in asking the government to open a dialogue.

Parents, grassroots groups and elements of the Catholic Church say they will continue demonstrating in support of the teachers until the government agrees to talks.

Here in the capital, teachers rallied in front of the federal Attorney General’s office to demand the release of the union leaders.

Seven CNTE officials are in custody and 24 others are being sought by authorities on charges they illegally obtained 132 million pesos ($7.1 million), prosecutor Gilberto Higuera told Radio Formula on Monday.

The decision to arrest Nuñez and Villalobos was “arbitrary and dictatorial,” Lopez Obrador said Sunday, adding that his Morena party “backs the struggle of the teachers under any circumstances.”

The CNTE contends that the teacher evaluation process introduced by the Peña Nieto reforms is punitive and fails to account for regional differences in educational methods and in the availability of resources, especially in poor rural areas

LATAKIA (Syria), June 14. /TASS/. Russia’s military have delivered some 5 metric tons of humanitarian aid for the Christian community of the city of Latakia in Syria, a spokesman for the Russian center for reconciliation of the warring sides in Syria, Col. Alexander Vladimirov, told journalists.

Some 500 local residents received bags with individual food rations, tinned fish and meat, meal, macaroni etc. Military medics mounted a mobile medical facility and provided medical aid to all those in need of it.

"Today we delivered five tons of humanitarian aid to the city of Latakia. The food was received by people in need whose list was provided by the senior priest of the Church of the Andrew the Apostle," Vladimirov said.

He said the aid was received not only by Christians but also by some 100 Muslims.

Earlier on June 14, the Russian ceasefire center said atotal of 18 tons of United Nations humanitarian cargoes, primarily food products and cereals, were delivered by a Russian plane to the Syrian city of Deir ez-Zor besieged by Islamic State terrorists.

Apart from that, according to the Russian center, four tons of humanitarian aid was delivered to people living in the settlement of Khmira in the province of Hama. The humanitarian cargoes included flour and cereals.

The center also said that more humanitarian convoys are being formed for Syrian citizens.

MEXICO CITY – Hundreds of bicyclists rolled into the streets Saturday, both in Mexico City and in Guadalajara, Jalisco state, to take part in the World Naked Bike Ride.

Among the objectives of this 6th edition of the show-all ride was, first, to raise awareness about the environmental advantages of bicycles over cars that burn fossil fuel, and, second, to grab the attention of aggressive motorists who make life dangerous for cyclists.

The bike-riders were really asking for a little respect.

According to the daily Reforma, some cyclists painted the slogan “Now you do see me” on their naked bodies, again to make the point that they have to do something really shocking to get self-centered motorists to realize they even exist.

That way they might get their fair share of the road.

“We get naked and paint ourselves with slogans – it’s a way of criticizing motorists who act like they don’t see us, who don’t let us through and even run over us,” said one of the demonstrators, Yereni Carranza, the daily said.

“This way everybody looks at us and even lets us through,” she said.

According to the organizers, some 5,000 cyclists were expected to roll along the Mexico City route that set out from the Monument of the Revolution and went to the Zocalo and other key points around town before returning to where they started.

JUNE 8, 2016- According to the reports, Hamid Babaei, a PhD student incarcerated for nearly three years in Ghohar dasht notorious Prison following a trial that lasted less than 10 minutes, has been denied his rights to conditional release and furlough (temporary leave granted to most of Iran’s inmates). Babaei has also been suffering from severe gum disease and other dental problems in prison, but the authorities have ignored his need for proper medical treatment, an informed source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

“Hamid and his family have requested furlough numerous times but the prosecutor has refused, not even allowing a short furlough on medical grounds so that Hamid could get treatment at a hospital,” said the source.

Babaei has consistently said that he was imprisoned for refusing to operate as an informant in Belgium, where he was completing his PhD as a foreign student, for Iran’s Intelligence Ministry. During his first trial, Babaei was represented by a court-appointed public defender that was mostly silent and did not offer any defense on behalf of his client, said the source.

Babaei’s lawyer initially advised him to confess to the charges laid against him, but Babaei maintained that he was being penalized for refusing to cooperate with the Intelligence Ministry.

“I did not realize that the moment I walked into the Intelligence Ministry would be the last time we would ever be together and that we would be caught in a bitter scenario,” wrote Babaei in a letter to his wife following his arrest in August 2013. “Neither of us deserved this fate in any way.”“How I wish we had never come back [to Iran] and this painful tragedy had never happened so I would not be staring at Iran’s sky through barbed wire every day,” he said.Babaei’s wife, Kobra Parsajou, was arrested in September 2014 for speaking to the media about her husband’s condition and handed a suspended six-month prison sentence.Family members of political prisoners are frequently warned that they will be punished if they speak to the media about the cases.Babaei, 32, has served two years and 10 months of his six-year prison sentence, which qualifies him for conditional release.Babaei was pursuing his PhD in finance at the University of Liège in Belgium when he was arrested on August 13, 2013 during a visit to Iran to see his family.Babaei was held in solitary confinement for 20 days in Evin Prison ’s Ward 240 and 15 days in Ward 209—both security wards. He was subsequently transferred to General Ward 350 on September 18, 2013.During his arrest he was repeatedly interrogated without any access to a lawyer or contact with his family.According to the report, on December 21, 2013, during a trial that lasted less than 10 minutes, Judge Mohammad Moghisseh of Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Babaei to six years in prison with an additional four-year suspended prison term for “spying and contact with enemy states.” The Appeals Court upheld the ruling.Babaei, who received his masters in mathematics with honors from the Science and Industry University in Tehran in 2008, was permitted by the Judiciary to visit a dentist outside prison to be treated for severe gum disease on a couple of occasions, but for unspecified reasons the prison authorities did not allow Babaei to attend the appointments even though his family had paid for them.Amnesty International as well as the Iranian community in Belgium have strongly condemned Babaei’s arrest and conviction and called for his immediate release.

MOSCOW – The Russian defense ministry announced that a Russian pilot from Knights aerobatic team died on Thursday after his Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet crashed on the outskirts of Moscow, as he was returning to the base after performing an aerobatic demonstration.

An emergency services spokesperson for emergency services confirmed that the remains of the pilot were found at the scene of the tragedy.

The pilot had participated with five other fighters in an aerobatic demonstration for the inauguration of a memorial to Russian pilots in a town near Moscow.

Three weeks ago, the deceased had to make an emergency landing due to problems in the engine of his jet.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – The Alberione house, located in the western Mexican municipality of Tlaquepaque, was a refuge for priests involved in pedophilia cases, Cardinal Emeritus Juan Sandoval Iñiquez confirmed on Wednesday.

In an interview with EFE after the recent publication of his memoirs entitled “Con mi propia voz” (In my own words), the cardinal said that the house was a rehabilitation center for clergy until Pope John Paul II in 2001 sent a letter to bishops asking them not to conceal those cases.

“Since I was in the post, and certainly before, but when in 2001 Pope John Paul II said that pedophiles had to leave the ministry, then I gave the order to the Alberione house not to admit any pedophile priest,” he said.

Since that time, a group of physicians, psychologists and psychiatrists were connected to the house – located several kilometers from where Sandoval lives – attending to priests suffering from alcoholism, depression or who had “problems with authority,” said the 83-year-old prelate.

Sandoval recalled that after the cover-up scandal involving pedophile priests at the Boston Archdiocese, John Paul II sent the bishops in May 2001 a document classifying pedophilia as a sin and at that point reforms were launched “that have been made stricter and stricter.”

With those reforms, bishops now have the obligation to immediately and “thoroughly” investigate if they learn of a case of clerical pedophilia, to send a report to Rome and to inform the civil authorities.

“It has to be done, it must be done because it’s been ordered done,” said the cardinal emeritus in response to a question about whether bishops are complying with these obligations.

On June 4, Pope Francis decreed that the rules against pedophilia cases be strengthened, whereby bishops can be ousted from their posts if they have acted in a negligent way or have failed to fully comply with the order.

In the interview conducted at his home in downtown Tlaquepaque, the cardinal – retired since 2011 – said that during his 17-year-mandate at the head of the Guadalajara Archdiocese he had to deal with only “a single case” of clerical pedophilia.

“He was sent to prison, and I left him there and later they let him go because he was old. They threw him out. But I did not defend him, he didn’t conduct himself like a priest,” Sandoval, who was one of the cardinals close to John Paul II, said without providing additional details.

Wednesday, June 8, 2016

WASHINGTON – U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Ill.) said on Tuesday that the attacks made by his party’s presumptive presidential nominee, magnate Donald Trump, on a judge of Mexican heritage meet “the textbook definition of a racist comment.”

“I regret those comments that he made,” said Ryan, who – as House Speaker – is the highest-ranking elected Republican, at an event held in Washington to present a plan to fight poverty.

The Republican leader was referring to accusations made by Trump against Indiana-born Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who is tasked with hearing lawsuits alleging fraud committed by the “university” bearing the magnate’s name.

Last Friday, Curiel ordered the publication of more than 1,000 pages of court documents on Trump University because of the public interest in the case, which began in 2010 in the Southern California district, based in San Diego.

In response, the billionaire accused the judge of making that decision because of his Mexican heritage, which he said was a conflict of interest on Curiel’s part because of his own plan to build a wall along the southern border with Mexico to stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

Ryan said Tuesday that “claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment.”

“I think that should be absolutely disavowed,” said the speaker, adding that the New York real estate developer’s comments were “indefensible.”

Ryan criticized Trump last week on the same subject, albeit in a much more moderate tone.

Also last week, the Republican leader officially declared his support for Trump in the November election after much hesitation due to the billionaire’s incendiary rhetoric.

Trump’s comments about Curiel, whom he accuses of treating him unfairly in investigating the claims of fraud against Trump University, have sparked heated controversy throughout the United States.

Trump University has been depicted in court documents as an unscrupulous business that pressured poor enrollees to buy its courses in real estate purchasing, management and finance costing almost $35,000.

TOKYO - Police arrested Wednesday a Japanese woman, who was traveling with the corpses of her children in the backseat of her car, on suspicion of killing them.

The 30-year-old woman is in police custody and is being interrogated by the police, who are trying to clarify the cause of death of the two children, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.

On Tuesday evening, a relative had reported the disappearance of the mother and her two children, who are natives of the southwestern Yamaguchi prefecture.

On Wednesday morning, police officers stopped a vehicle with the license plate of the prefecture in question and discovered that the driver was the missing woman, who was traveling with the corpses of her children in the backseat.

The vehicle was found in Yame, located in a mountainous region of the Fukuoka prefecture.

The police believe the mother tried to commit suicide after killing her children, investigating sources told Japanese daily Asahi.

Sunday, June 5, 2016

NCRI - The mullahs' regime on Thursday arrested more than 70 young men and women for taking part in a mixed-gender party at a restaurant in Tehran, the Iranian regime's state media reported on Friday.

The youths were arrested by the regime's police during a raid on a restaurant in the Iranian capital’s northern Farahzad district, the state-run ILNA news agency reported.

Earlier this week, the Iranian regime's suppressive state security forces (police) in Bandar Abbas, southern Iran, raided a mixed-gender party, arresting 62 people and transferring them to prison, according to state media.

The state-run Shahrvand daily wrote on June 2 that 23 men and 39 women, who were caught dancing and partying, were arrested in the raid which was carried out on Sunday, May 29.

Similar raids have been carried out in Iran in recent days.

More than two dozen young Iranian men and women were arrested last weekend by the mullahs' regime for participating in a mixed-gender party in Mashhad, north-east Iran.

The 29 youngsters were rounded up by the regime's police at a party on the evening of May 28 at a villa near the Danesh Junction in Mashhad.

The state-run Rokna news agency reported that altogether 15 young men and 14 young women were arrested at the party and were taken to the regime's court in District 6 of Mashhad on Sunday to face prosecution.

Some 35 young men and women were flogged last week for taking part in a mixed-gender party after their graduation ceremony near Qazvin, some 140 kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran, the regime's Prosecutor in the city said on May 26.

Ismaeil Sadeqi Niaraki, a notorious mullah, said a special court session was held after all the young men and women at the party were rounded up, the Mizan news agency, affiliated to the fundamentalist regime's judiciary, reported on May 26.

"After we received information that a large number of men and women were mingling in a villa in the suburbs of Qazvin ... all the participants at the party were arrested," he said.

Niaraki added that the following morning every one of those detained received 99 lashes as punishment by the so-called 'Morality Police.'

According to Niaraki, given the social significance of mixed-gender partying, "this once again required a firm response by the judiciary in quickly reviewing and implementing the law."

"Thanks God that the police questioning, investigation, court hearing, verdict and implementation of the punishment all took place in less than 24 hours," Niaraki added.

The regime’s prosecutor claimed that the judiciary would not tolerate the actions of “law-breakers who use excuses such as freedom and having fun in birthday parties and graduation ceremonies.”

He warned the youths that they should be careful about their conduct “since being arrested in mixed-gender parties and receiving sentences is a crime and would create problems for their future education and employment.”

The head of the fundamentalist Basij in Nishapur precinct, Ali-Akbar Hosseini, announced that his forces were alerted to a so-called “obscene party” in the city. During the raid, 14 boys and 14 girls were arrested and transferred to a local police station.

A second party was raided on May 20, leading to the arrest of over 40 participants, Hosseini told the state-run Fars news agency on May 21.

Saudi Arabia has arrested 32 spies with links to Iran's regime in three years, according to a report on Sunday in the Saudi daily Okaz.

The spies were 30 Saudis, an Iranian, and an Afghan who were all part of espionage rings working for Iran's regime, Okaz wrote.

The 32 spies with links to the Iranian intelligence services are still on trial and the public prosecutor has recently presented his evidence against each of the suspects, the daily said.

The charges include the formation of a spy cell, which liaised and collaborated with elements of the Iranian regime's intelligence ministry to provide secret and sensitive information related to the military and that affects the national security, the territorial unity and integrity of Saudi Arabia and its armed forces.

The suspects are also accused of meeting the Iranian regime’s Supreme leader Ali Khamenei and coordinating with agents from the Iranian intelligence, according to Okaz.

Other charges include attempts to carry out acts of sabotage against economic interests and vital installations in Saudi Arabia, to undermine social peace and public order, to spread chaos, to incite sectarian strife, and to carry out hostile acts against the kingdom.

The suspects also face accusations of high treason, and attempting to recruit people working in state agencies to commit acts of espionage for the Iranian intelligence service.

According to the charges, most suspects had travelled to Iran and Lebanon where they were trained on espionage techniques including drafting coded messages.

Some of the suspects had hacked into computers to obtain sensitive information related to the internal and external security and the national economy of Saudi Arabia, Gulf News wrote on Sunday.

BAGHDAD – At least 17 people were killed, including 10 members from the Islamic State terrorist group, in attacks and clashes in the Iraqi province of Saladin, north of capital Baghdad, according to a security official.

The security official told EFE that IS fighters attacked a position of Iraqi forces on Saturday in the oil field of Ojeil, located 40 kilometers (25 miles) northeast of Tikrit, capital of the Iraqi province.

At first, the jihadists managed to control some of the government forces positions, but the troops finally managed to regain the positions after the arrival of reinforcements and support by Iraqi army aviation.

Clashes between the two sides led to the killing of 10 jihadists, destroying military equipment and seizing weapons and ammunition, while at least three soldiers were killed and another 15 wounded from the Iraqi forces.

The official added that at least four Iraqi soldiers were killed and eight wounded in a suicide attack on an army checkpoint in the Tarmiyah, on the area between Saladin and Baghdad.

MONTERREY, Mexico – A fight at the Topo Chico penitentiary in the northern Mexican industrial city of Monterrey left three inmates dead and 14 others wounded, officials said on Thursday.

The fight occurred at 9:24 p.m. Wednesday at the prison, where 49 inmates died in February in a fight, one of the deadliest incidents ever in a Mexican penitentiary.

The dead inmates have been identified as Eldemiro Guadalupe Gonzalez, Jesus Ledezma and Jesus Orlando Galindo, Nuevo Leon Gov. Jaime Rodriguez said in a Twitter post.

The wounded prisoners “are being treated” by doctors and five were transported to a hospital, the governor said.

“Regarding the incidents ... at Topo Chico, the investigation is ongoing after the quick actions of the Civil Force,” Rodriguez said.

The fight involved members of rival factions of the Los Zetas drug cartel, just like in February, and the inmate who instigated the clashes earlier this year was once gain involved.

The three inmates were killed with blows and sharp weapons.

The security forces regained control of the prison around midnight and officials allowed inmates’ relatives to enter and assess the men’s condition.

Representatives of different human rights groups went to Topo Chico to try to determine what sparked the fight.

The Feb. 11 fight inside the Topo Chico penitentiary started over officials’ decision to transfer dangerous inmates to other prisons.

The fight occurred in Topo Chico’s C2 and C3 cell blocks, where inmates armed with shanks, bottles, bats and sticks fought after setting fire to the food storage area, and the blaze spread to the cells housing inmates.

The Topo Chico prison riot, one of the deadliest in the past 30 years in Mexico, was brought under control with the intervention of army soldiers, marines and the Federal Police.

Federal officials are working to overhaul state prison systems, which are plagued by “impunity and corruption,” Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio told Radio Formula.

Topo Chico is one of Nuevo Leon’s oldest penitentiaries and houses around 3,800 inmates.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Six men were found fatally shot in the western Mexican city of Tonala, the Jalisco state Attorney General’s Office said Thursday.

The victims, whose hands and feet were bound, were discovered in the Agua Escondida neighborhood. Four of the bodies were dumped under a bridge, while police found the other two in a nearby vacant lot.

Authorities are still working to identify the men, described as being in their mid-20s.

Jalisco saw 463 homicides in the first five months of the year, compared with 370 during the same period of 2015, the state AG Office said.

The dominant criminal organization in the state is the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, regarded as one of Mexico’s most violent underworld groups

Nearly 30 young Iranian men and women were detained in the weekend after they attended a party in the northern city of Mashhad, according to the mullahs’ news agencies.The so called ‘moral police raided the party on Saturday evening, May 28, at a villa near the Danesh Junction in Mashhad where these young people were enjoying their time.The state-run Rokna news agency said on Monday, May 30, that altogether 15 young men and 14 young women were arrested at the party and were taken to the regime's court in District 6 of Mashhad on Sunday to face prosecution.Some 35 young men and women were flogged last week for taking part in a mixed-gender party after their graduation ceremony near Qazvin, some 140 kilometers northwest of the Iranian capital Tehran, the regime's Prosecutor in the city said last Thursday, May 26.Ismaeil Sadeqi Niaraki, a notorious mullah, said a special court session was held after all the young men and women at the party were rounded up, the Mizan news agency, affiliated to the fundamentalist regime's judiciary, reported on May 26.'After we received information that a large number of men and women were mingling in a villa in the suburbs of Qazvin ... all the participants at the party were arrested,' he said.Niaraki added that the following morning every one of those detained received 99 lashes as punishment by the so-called 'Morality Police.'According to Niaraki, given the social significance of mixed-gender partying, 'this once again required a firm response by the judiciary in quickly reviewing and implementing the law.''Thanks God that the police questioning, investigation, court hearing, verdict and implementation of the punishment all took place in less than 24 hours,' Niaraki added.The regime’s prosecutor claimed that the judiciary would not tolerate the actions of “law-breakers who use excuses such as freedom and having fun in birthday parties and graduation ceremonies.”He warned the youths that they should be careful about their conduct “since being arrested in mixed-gender parties and receiving sentences is a crime and would create problems for their future education and employment.”Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ) on Thursday said that such barbaric acts prove that 'moderation' during Hassan Rouhani ’s Presidency is 'nothing but a myth.''Three years after Rouhani’s Presidency the human rights situation in Iran is deteriorating in every aspect. This also shows the regime’s fragile state and total isolation among the Iranian people, in particular among the youths. The notion advocated by some in the West that this regime has a future is totally naive,” he said.Earlier this month, the Iranian regime’s paramilitary Basij in north-eastern Iran broke up two mixed-gender parties within 72 hours, detaining 70 people.The head of the fundamentalist Basij in Nishapur precinct, Ali-Akbar Hosseini, announced that his forces were alerted to a so-called “obscene party” in the city. During the raid, 14 boys and 14 girls were arrested and transferred to a local police station.A second party was raided on May 20, leading to the arrest of over 40 participants, Hosseini told the state-run Fars news agency on May 21.

Iran's Cyber Police or as it’s known by initials (FATA) arrested a 15-year-old boy in the central Iranian city Isfahan for his online enthusiasm. He was aiming to launch a channel in social networks.Jahangir Karimi, a police commander in Isfahan, announced: 'After the final investigation, the 15-year-old teenager from Isfahan was identified quickly and summoned to the police.'Karimi’s remarks were reported on Thursday, May 26, by the website of the official state broadcaster IRIB.The Iranian regime’s Cyber Police (FATA) are responsible for monitoring cyber activities. Their most notorious case was that of blogger Sattar Beheshti who was killed under torture while in the regime's custody in November 2012.Earlier this month, the regime’s repressive Cyber Police announced that they had arrested two young webloggers in Rasht and Roudbar, northern Iran, charging them with “computer crimes.”The head of the FATA police in Gilan Province, Colonel Iraj Mohammadkhani, announced the arrests on May 3, adding that '[illegal] production, distribution and access to any data, software or any type of electronic devices are regarded as computer crimes and anyone committing such acts will be sentenced from 91 days to one year of imprisonment, or will have to pay a fine of five million to 20 million Rials (U.S. $166 to $662), or both.'As recently as March 20 16, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said Iran is still one of the world’s five biggest prisons for media personnel and is ranked 173rd out of 180 countries in the 2015 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI )earlier this month said: 'Freedom of the press and freedom of expression are non-existent in Iran under the mullahs' regime. Not only does the regime severely clamp down on journalists for reporting on subjects considered sensitive by the mullahs, it even goes so far as arresting and torturing to death dissident bloggers such as Sattar Beheshti.”“The regime's draconian measures against news organizations have become more aggressive since Hassan Rouhani took office as President in 2013. Several international human rights organizations have attested to this reality,' Mr. Gobadi added.Iran's fundamentalist regime on Sunday announced that it had set a one-year deadline for international social media, in particular Telegram, to hand over data on their Iranian users.The official state news agency IRNA reported on Sunday that the decision was taken on Saturday, May 28, at a session of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace, a committee on the use of cyberspace headed by the mullahs' President Hassan Rouhani that serves as the regime's IT regulator.